Saturday, February 27, 2010

How Does Wealth Correspond With Religion?

So I was wondering if there was a correlation between religion and wealth.

Does God care who gets wealthy?

If so, it seems that God would favor the "chosen" team over the "enemy."

Based upon who gathers wealth, can we accurately determine if God favors people in certain religions over others?

Here's a look at the 2009 Forbes Top 25 with their corresponding countries and religions (to the best of my investigation). If you have some other sources that indicate any of these are incorrect, or if you can help fill in the "Unknowns", I would be appreciative.

There are 8 Christians (with another 3 as possibles) yet 5 different sects.

There are 2 Hindus and 2 of the Jewish faith.

There is 1 Buddhist and 1 Muslim.

And of course, there are 5 Unknowns.

11 are US citizens; 3 Germans; 2 from France, Sweden and India.

1 each from Mexico, Spain, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia and Canada.

My answer: No, there is no correlation between wealth and religion except that America's openly capitalist society seems to inherently enable more Americans to achieve greater wealth. Hence, greater numbers of wealthy business people tend to belong to the dominant American religions.